As of July 2008 Dr. Jerzy Nowak has been appointed as Founding Director of a new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention (http://www.cpsvp.vt.edu/). Prior to this appointment he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Horticulture, Virginia Tech (2000-2008), coming from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC), Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he worked for 16 years as Professor of Plant Biotechnology and Head of the Department of Plant Science between 1997 and 2000.

Dr. Nowak was raised on a family farm and educated both in Poland and West Germany. During his professional career he also conducted research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Experimental Medicine in Goettingen and the German Institute of Biotechnology in Braunschweig-Stoekheim, West Germany, and at the University of Alberta, Canada. Between 1980 and 1982 he taught at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

In recent years Dr. Nowak has been one of the leaders in organizing research, education and outreach missions of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, VA (http://www.ialr.org/) aiming at socio-economic transformation of the traditional tobacco and textile dependent communities of Southside and South West Virginia, including dealing with youth at risk.

In his professional career he successfully supervised eight Ph.D. and 23 M.S. students, authored/co-authored 96 research articles, eight book chapters and over 100 other publications and generated over $4million in research funding.

As researcher, educator and administrator he always facilitated integration of advanced technologies into the development of low input production systems and socio-economic sustainability of rural communities.

As Founding Director of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention (www.cpsvp.vt.edu), Dr. Nowak fosters development of transdisciplinary programs that build on cultural, academic, and security initiatives of the university’s community that evolved after the tragedy of April 16, 2007. The Center has adopted three thematic areas that capture, focus, and leverage key strengths across the university and provide opportunities for partnerships with external entities: prevention of violence, peace studies, and development of new leaders for this Century.